EL CAJON  Melanie Talmadge is truly a Brave woman, thoroughly proud of being a graduate of El Cajon Valley High School.

Talmadge, a 1986 alumna, and fellow 1986 alum Michael Hayford, have for the last several months teamed up with retired El Cajon Valley High teacher and former Braves basketball coach Randy Robinson to drum up interest in bringing the glory back to the almost 60-year-old school, located just outside the heart of downtown El Cajon.

The trio, along with nearly 50 other current students and alumni, are leading the effort to restore the 15-foot wooden statue of the El Cajon Brave on the school’s campus. Several meetings have been held at the school to discuss refurbishing options and fundraising ideas on how best to bring the Brave back to its original glory.

The symbol of the Braves was presented as a gift to El Cajon Valley High by the class of 1960. Created by the late artist Gene Blome and carved from white cedar, the statue has stood in the quad area for more than 50 years.

And the time has come, the three believe, to beautify the Brave, and with that, they have quietly launched the Save the Brave campaign.

Robinson expects the cost to be in the $15,000 to $20,000 range, and he believes saving the Brave can be done through a grassroots effort. He wants to rally alumni as well as East County aficionados behind the effort. Robinson said he hopes the worked can be done over the summer and completed by the time classes resume in September.

“After 53 years of exposure to the elements, as well as attacks on it by rival schools, the Brave needs to be restored,” Robinson said. “We know that the head needed to be replaced after an attack in 1980 and we know that at one time it needed to be treated for termites. Currently, there are cracks in the torso, its feet have come off and there are various chunks missing from the body. We also must determine the structural integrity of our wooden icon.”

Robinson has retained the talents of two local artists, Mike Matson and Lorenzo Foncerrada, part of the San Diego Sculptors Guild, to help renew the Brave.

Matson, a Helix High alum who lives in Del Mar, and his son, Kevin, have accepted the offer to not only restore the statue but to also build a mold so that replicas of the statue can be made and then sold as collectibles, created as a part of future fundraising efforts for the school.

“We will restore the existing statue, make all of the cracks and rotten wood disappear, restoring it to the white cedar it was originally,” Mike Matson said. “It will never shrink, it will never rot, it will never crack. We have the modern materials to do it.”

Robinson noted: “When finished, they assure us that barring a disaster, the Brave will last for 100 years before any work will be needed again.”

Hayford and his wife have started to set up a foundation to help the schools in the Grossmont Union High School District, and say that restoring the Brave is their first plan of action. Hayford said anyone interested in donating should contact him at

“The Brave is kind of iconic to the school,” said Hayford, who played football at the school and who married Michelle Estrada, another 1986 alum. “As an athlete and student, to say, ‘Home of the Brave’ is very emotional. It’s been almost 30 years for us and now when I think back to high school, the statue is one of the first things that comes to mind. Friends, the campus, all the experiences. The statue is the lightning rod that ties individuals, in memory and reference. It’s a solid icon. People relate to it.”

Talmadge said she has even more impetus to get the statue refurbished because she met artist Blome in 2007, when he was honored by the school. Despite having been diagnosed with colon cancer, Blome, 82, traveled from Oregon to be recognized in El Cajon. He passed away one month after his visit.

“I had the great pleasure to speak with him several times by phone, before and after meeting him in person, and found him to be a truly inspiring and wonderful person,” Talmadge said. “I sincerely hope we can save his wonderful artwork for future generations of Braves to draw inspiration from as they pass through the halls of El Cajon Valley High School.”

Talmadge said her recollection of how Blome came to create the Brave is one she wants to pass along.

Talmadge said Blome initially was asked to do a wood carving demonstration at the Del Mar Fair in the late 1950s.

“He was asked to sculpt a matador, which I believe was the mascot of the fair, Don Diego,” Talmadge said. “The carving was incomplete at the end of the fair, but the students of Mount Miguel High School asked if the carving could be completed as a gift to the school from either the class of 1958 or 1959, from the previous summer’s fair. The finished sculpture cost $500 and was 13 feet tall.

“After seeing the completed Matador at Mount Miguel, the students of El Cajon Valley’s class of 1960 approached Mr. Blome about sculpting a brave as their class gift to the school. It would, of course, need to be 14 feet tall so as to be taller than the matador. The cost of the Brave was $500 and was carved from a white cedar log harvested locally in San Diego County, which was acquired for the students by the father of the class president, who was in the logging business at that time.

“The log was trucked directly to the front yard of Mr. Blome’s Clairemont home and stood on end, upside down, next to a tall, wooden platform from which Mr. Blome worked over the next six months. He told me the neighbors used to slow down and check his progress on their way home from work, causing a little bit of traffic on his street.”

Talmadge said she was disheartened that years ago, vandals cut off the Brave’s face. She said she has a hopeful plea asking for the return of the original face.

“It might be tucked away somewhere in a garage collecting dust,” Talmadge said. “We would just dearly love to have it back and perhaps it could even be restored back to its rightful position; facing ever westward on the campus of El Cajon Valley High.”

More recent alumni are also adamant about beautifying the Brave.

When Omar Mendez transferred to El Cajon Valley as a freshman in 2000, he said “the Brave statue in the quad quickly caught my attention. It served as the centerpiece to our pep rallies as well as the backdrop to many school assemblies.”

Mendez said, “It is part of El Cajon Valley’s history and tradition. There is a line in our fight song that declares ‘we’ll fight to defend your honor, fame.’ Allowing our statue to fall by the wayside would not be the Brave way. It is time for current Braves and alumni alike to join together to ‘Save the Brave.’”